David Simon bemoans drastic cuts at Times-Picayune

David Simon whose HBO show "Treme" is shot in New Orleans, is venting to the media site Poynter.org about plans to cut back the city's newspaper, the Times-Picayune.

News broke this week that the paper's owners plan to publish the Times-Picayune just three days a week starting this fall. There will also be staff cuts.

"It’s grievous news as it would be for any American city," Simons told Poynter in an email, adding, "But New Orleans isn’t immune. No one is. And this slow suicide — as the great Molly Ivins called it — will continue unabated until the industry swallows hard and takes its product — every last newspaper — behind a paywall."

Simon is a former Baltimore Sun reporter.

The Sun, as you know if you're reading this blog post, has established an online subscription service where readers pay to read content.

Simon told Poynter:

Either newspapers create an online revenue stream or they die. Online advertising isn’t enough and the pennies thrown from on high by aggregators are irrelevant. Either content and copyright matter, or they don’t. If they don’t, then this is over.